BACK of the BOOK
Heard in the Blogosphere
#ConquerSCD
September marked National Sickle Cell Awareness Month,
during which the Sickle Cell Disease Coalition and
partner organizations, including the American Society of
Hematology, issued a call to action to #ConquerSCD and
celebrate #SCDVictories. Here are a few of the highlights
shared on social media.
Sickle Cell Disease
Coalition
@ConquerSCD
Did you know? September is
#SickleCell Awareness Month.
Sept. 2016 we launched the
SCD Coalition.
The Pharmaceutical Industry’s Social
Contract With Patients
“The social contract between drug companies and society requires
a balance: a balance of prices (not too high to gouge consumers but
not too low to insufficiently compensate drug companies), a balance
of competition law (not so lenient that it ignores anticompetitive
behavior that restricts patients’ access to alternative drugs, but
not so strict that it prevents companies from intensely competing
for profits), and a balance of patent law (not so weak that it fails to
incentivize innovation and drug development, but not so strong that
it enables drug companies to monopolize the market for an unrea-
sonable amount of time). These balances are critical to ensuring
that the social contract is for the mutual benefit of both parties. ...
Ultimately, we must expect both sides to live up to their side of the
bargain.”
—Joanna Shepherd, professor of law at Emory University School of Law, on the difficulties of maintaining the
social contract between patients and drug developers in Morning Consult
ASH
@ASH_hematology
The ASH Executive Committee is on
Capitol Hill today discussing legislation
to help #ConquerSCD!
Sickle Cell Disease Association of America
The Underwhelming Watson Revolution
When IBM launched its Watson for Oncology
program, it boldly stated that the supercom-
puter could revolutionize medicine by sifting
through mountains of data to recommend the
best cancer treatments to doctors. Six years
later, a STAT News investigation found that
the supercomputer isn’t living up to those
lofty expectations, with Watson trainers at
several cancer centers struggling to “teach”
the system about cancer care.
@SCDAAorg
As young adults the first step to becoming an advocate,
get educated about sickle cell, so that you can spread
awareness. #SCDVictories
SCDAA, Philadelphia/Delaware Valley
Chapter
@SCD_Philly
Met w/ a Washington Mandela Scholar from Uganda who
has sickle cell disease and has established a foundation in
his country #SCDVictories
Leroy Hughes, Jr.
“It’s been a struggle to update, I’ll be honest.
Changing the system of cognitive computing
doesn’t turn around on a dime. … Nobody wants
to hear this. All they want to hear is that Watson
is the answer. And it always has the right answer,
and you get it right away, and it will be cheaper.
But like anything else, it’s kind of human.”
—Mark Kris, MD, lead Watson trainer at Memorial
Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
“Our doctors say, ‘this treatment is our own
treatment; we know that.’ You don’t need to turn
around and put those treatments in Watson, and
let Watson tell us what kind of treatment that we
are using here in the hospital.”
—Nan Chen, who manages the Watson for Oncology
program at Bumrungrad International Hospital in
Thailand
“The goal as Watson gets smarter is for it to
make [treatment] recommendations in a more
automated way. … My own belief is that over
time we will be better at measuring and report-
ing outcomes, and that data will be increasingly
influential. Where cancer care is today, I don’t
think that any computing system is ready to
be let out into the world without a measure of
expert human oversight.”
—Andrew Norden, MD, MPH, MBA, former deputy
chief health officer and lead physician for oncology
and genomics at IBM Watson Health
“Importantly, how do we create an environ-
ment that can ensure the most important
tenet in medicine: Do no harm?”
—Lynda Chin, MD, who led the alliance between
Watson and MD Anderson Cancer Center before the
project was cancelled
@LeroyHughesJr
Thanks to everyone who supported @SCDAAorg Annual
Walk! We WILL find a cure! #SCDVictories
Follow ASH and ASH Clinical News on:
@ASH_Hematology, @BloodJournal,
@BloodAdvances, and @ASHClinicalNews
Facebook.com/AmericanSocietyofHematology
@ASH_Hematology
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ASH Clinical News
October 2017